Crawling is a typical part of early childhood development that starts between age 6 to 11 months. During this crucial time, infants use crawling to interact independently with their environment. This stage is important for developing strength, coordination, motor skills and cognitive development.
In 1994 the Academy of American Pediatrics started the “Back to Sleep” campaign to help prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Studies have shown, as an inadvertent result of the campaign, that children are meeting their motor milestones later in addition to an increase in torticollis and plagiocephaly. This is due to the lack of time spent on their bellies, now known as “tummy time”. Many children are born with conditions which hinder strength and/or motor development. Cerebral Palsy and spina bifida are examples of such conditions that could benefit from the independent mobility and environmental exploration provided by an infant crawling device.
Therefore a need exists for a novel device configured to assist infants and children in the performance of learning to crawl. There is also a need for novel mobility assisting device which is able provide children born with and without conditions which hinder strength and/or motor development with the benefit of the independent mobility and environmental exploration.